PROPOSAL FOR THE ESTABLISHMENT OF AN INTERNATIONAL GENEBANK AND THE PREPARATION OF A DRAFT CONVENTION FOR PLANT GENETIC RESOURCES

The above questions are, at the time FGRI No. 12 goes to print (November 1983), being discussed at the 22nd Session of the FAO Conference, by the 156 Member Nations of the Organization. The discussions are carried out as a follow-up to Resolution 6/81 adopted by the 21st Session of the Conference in November 1981; this Resolution, which was subsequently discussed at the meeting of the Committee of Agriculture (COAG) in March 1983 and elaborated through a Working Group of 13 countries put up by the Director General of FAO following the COAG meeting to assist him in further studies in the matter for reporting to the present Session of the Conference, requests the Director General to:

1. examine and prepare the elements of a Draft International Convention on plant genetic resources; and
2. prepare a study on the establishment of an International Gene Bank for Plant Genetic Resources of agricultural interest, under the auspices of FAO.

The present discussions are based on Conference Document C 83/25 (August 1983), “Plant Genetic Resources. Report of the Director General” (FAO, Rome).

An account of these discussions and possible decisions and their implications for work in forest genetic resources, will be given in the next issue of FGRI.